Many electronic systems are assembled through the use of electrical or optical connectors, such as circuit board to circuit board connectors, cable to circuit board connectors, and cable to cable connectors. Connectors typically include a plug part and socket part, which interconnect. In certain applications, the plug part of the connector is inserted and extracted many times from the socket part of the connector. For example, when testing a circuit board product, a manufacturer inserts and extracts many circuit boards from a single test interface connector. Over time, the connector's sockets wear out and the electrical connection between any given circuit board and the test interface degrades. The effects on testing are detrimental. Instead of detecting failures in a circuit board product, the testing interface may incorrectly detect a failure as a result of a poor electrical or optical connection in a connector. As a result, manufacturers suffer from decreased yield when they discard circuit boards that fail testing procedures because of a poor electrical connection. In other applications, systems or networks may experience failures due to regular maintenance of the systems that includes unplugging and re-plugging circuit boards or cables.